Monday, April 18, 2011

Hobbies

Thanks to all who emailed me about the full moon effect. I am glad I am not alone. If you haven't read it yet, go back to the March 21st entry.

I was going to talk about dentistry today, but got caught up on this topic this weekend. I think everybody needs one!

Whether it's golf, tap dancing, stamp collecting, motorcycles, music, or hunting, I think everyone should have an outlet or a special interest they enjoy doing for themselves. Escaping from the day-to-day grind of dentistry, or whatever your job is, devoting time to a special hobby or interest is therapeutic. I looked up the word hobby in the dictionary, and it says that a hobby is "an activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure." I don’t know about the rest of you, but if I were to bury myself in dentistry every day, week to week, month to month, I would go insane. Don’t get me wrong, I love dentistry, but we all know how stressful it can be at times. Add that to the role of being a father, husband, mother, wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend, and stress or monotony may not make you the friendliest or happiest person to be around.

My hobby happens to be music (even though I have a motorcycle that keeps me living on the edge). My father taught me how to play a banjo and a guitar when I was about 5 years old. He instilled in me the importance of having a hobby at a young age. I believe it’s a stress relieving as much as it is pleasurable. ( this is a photo of our group playing at the historic Marion Theater)

The thing with hobbies, though, is that they can get expensive. Just recently, I went up to Canada to a one-week guitar workshop that was located in the home of the instructor, Don Ross. Wow, what an experience that was. First, you have the price of guitars. You can spend a hundred dollars or thousands of dollars on one. Then you have all the accessories that go along with it: strings, straps, tuners, cleaners, cases, speakers, cords, mics, recording devices, music stands, and instrument stands, just to name a few. And of course, you do have to dedicate some time to hobbies, and fortunately I have a supportive and understanding family that lets me pretend I am John Mayer every once in a while.

One great thing about having a hobby is that you don’t have to be good at it! You don’t even have to make money at it! I don’t have to compete with James Taylor or Eric Clapton; shoot, they don’t even know who I am. I'm in the middle of making a CD right now. You wouldn’t believe what a process that is. It has been a year so far, and I think we have 5 songs recorded.

I can’t wait to talk about dentistry on another day, but I wanted everyone to get a sense of who I am and what I enjoy. I would love to hear about other hobbies people have. If you don’t have one, find something that you are passionate about that makes you uniquely ‘you’. Sure, playing guitar takes time and money, but I am convinced that having a hobby makes me a better husband, father and dentist. And that is what matters most to me. Talk to you soon.

I feel your pain on cost of hobbies. Mine is showing dogs in performance sports. I do not buy expensive dogs, only get rescues, but vet bills, training fees (lessons for myself and the dogs), show entries etc make me sometimes feel I am working to support my hobbies! It is the only thing that keeps me from obsessing over my practice to an unhealthy extent. I was unable to have this hobby for the first 10 years of practice, so I truly appreciate having a life now!

It was great reading your blog because it just made me realize that i don't have a hobby at all. I work, go home, eat, set up my alarm and sleep. I used to have hobbies but after marriage and especially after a kid-i don't have time for any. I am always supposed to be there for them. Watching tv is the only relaxing thing i do but can we call that a hobby? Its more of a time pass. It is great to see though that there are people who pursue their hobbies. I agree, they are VERY important.

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